British Food Journal Volume 47 Issue 7 1945

• Published in: British Food Journal
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald 1945
• Subjects: North Pole; Yukon; polar desert
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eb011401; https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/eb011401/full/xml; https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/eb011401/full/html

The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research has released an account of the preparation of emergency rations in the form of dehydrated foodstuffs. These rations were designed and made when the result of a forced landing of an aircraft flying over polar regions may have to be faced. Having regard to the special circumstances for which the method described by the Department was designed it is perhaps not too much to say that it introduces as great a change in feeding the crews of airships as did Appert in feeding the crews of sailing ships a hundred and thirty‐five years ago. Appert's method did much to eliminate scurvy. This to prevent starvation and loss of life which the accounts of Polar expeditions have too often recorded. Dried fruits and dried vegetables have long been known and used. Milk powder and egg powder are now as well known. If these and tinned foods be regarded as ordinary rations they are too heavy and too bulky to be of use in an emergency such as may arise when a Polar flight ends in an unpremeditated grounding and the crew are left in a Polar desert to make the best they can of the conditions. It will be remembered that in May last the “Aries,” a British Lancaster airship, made a trip of some 17,000 miles. Much of this trip was in the Polar regions. The g eographical North Pole was visited and in the return journey the true position of the magnetic North Pole was ascertained in a 4,000 mile non‐stop return journey from White Horse, Yukon, to Shrewsbury. In view of possibilities an emergency ration had to be designed in which most of the food was in the form of hydrostatically compressed blocks of compounded and dehydrated foods. The compression reducing bulk; dehydration, weight; compounding ensuring variety. The rations so prepared had to be sufficient to feed nine men for twenty‐eight days. An account of the rations so prepared forms the subject of the report issued by the Department. These blocks consist of mixtures of dehydrated foods with added sweetening and flavouring materials ...